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Tuesday, June 14, 2005

When fate prevents him from avenging the deaths of his parents, young Bruce Wayne vowed to avenge his parent’s death and avenge the many victims of crime. He travels all over the world to train himself physically, mentally, and spiritually to become a creature crusading for justice. When he returns, Bruce finds that his home, Gotham City has become overrun with crime and corruption, and that there are forces at work trying to remove him from his inherited place as the owner of Wayne Industries. Discovering a cave under Wayne Manor, Bruce assumes a new identity as a secret detective and guardian of the people of Gotham City against the criminals that plague them...

When the Batman film came out in 1989 with Tim Burton as the director, it was to revolutionize the superhero genre of film for it offered a mature approach on adapting the superhero genre unto the silver screen. But when Warner Brothers changed the director, shifting to Joel Schumacher, to direct a more kid-friendly (and utterly childish) Batman movie, the Batman genre immediately fell into an embarrassing slumber. “Batman Forever” was pop garbage, and the Power-Rangers-like “Batman & Robin” became the 2 most awful superhero movies to date.

Hopefully learning from their mistakes, the Batman film franchise is making a comeback, trying to earn back its reputation and success among recent superhero movies that has gained applause; like “X-Men”, “The Hulk” and “HellBoy”. The new Batman promises to deliver what the real Batman is meant to be: dark, brooding, and sometimes, even twisted.

BATMAN BEGINS is loosely based on the mini-series BATMAN: YEAR ONE which is one of the best Batman stories ever made

Warner Brothers and DiBonaventura Pictures have returned to once again delve into the shadow of the Batman. Fittingly, they opted for a director who would surely deliver a dark and moody, but at the same time, intelligent take on the Batman; Christopher Nolan, who directed such excellent mysteries such as “Memento” and “Insomnia”. The storyline of BATMAN BEGINS will focus on the younger Batman (ie, not long after the setting of Batman: Year One mini-series). The villain known as the Scarecrow, who uses drugs and chemicals to alter people's perception of reality, sending them into nightmare-like hallucinations, is in the movie as the villain, along with Ra's Al Ghul, an international criminal mastermind obsessed with taking over the world (and maintaining his immortality, after having lived 600+ years). This film is relaunching the franchise, basing the storyline on the most popular origin-storyline of the Batman; BATMAN: YEAR ONE which tells the origins of how Batman really evolved into the dark crimefighter that he is.

The Batman saga has rich characters that have been pretty underplayed in the previous movies. First and foremost is (Commissioner/Sgt.) Jim Gordon who is the narrating protagonist of the famous Batman: Year One mini-series. In the comics and even in the animation, he is less reliant on Batman. He and the rest of the Gotham Police are not as inutile as in the movie version (especially in the Schumacher version) where they’re played as dumb and inefficient. Alfred Pennyworth, is not supposed to be just a stereotype old British butler; there is even a season in the Batman comic universe that he left Bruce Wayne because of a complicated disagreement. Lucious Fox, the man who actually runs Wayne Enterprises for Bruce so he can concentrate on fighting crime. All these characters hope to be portrayed correctly with the introduction of an impressive new cast, which includes: Ken Watanabe (Ra's Al Ghul), Michael Caine (Alfred Pennyworth), Morgan Freeman (Lucius Fox), Rutger Hauer, Katie Holmes (Rachel Dodson), Cillian Murphy (Dr. Jonathan Crane/The Scarecrow), Liam Neeson (Ducard), Gary Oldman (Sgt. Jim Gordon), Tom Wilkinson (Carmine Falcone), and Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne, AKA Batman).

The script is written by David S. Goyer (Blade, Blade II, Death Warrant, The Crow: City of Angels, Freddy vs Jason; he's also got Blade: Trinity coming before this) and Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia)